The Borgia Family - Dissertation

Conclusion

After closely analysing specific themes that are evoked when one thinks of the infamous Borgia Family one must now draw a clear judgment through balancing the arguments and ensuring their influence upon answering the question is justified.

Many of the arguments presented show how the immorality of the Borgia family is very similar to that of previous Popes and other Italian renaissance families; these arguments include nepotism and murder, where in both, examples of similar instances of immorality could be found from different points in Renaissance Italy, thus weakening the overall significance of these arguments.

Some very shocking arguments, which one felt somewhat unaware of before setting out upon this research project, was the influence of Borgia brutality in obtaining Savonarola's confession and the rumours, which seemed to hold more evidence that originally thought, of incest between certain members of the Borgia family; both of these arguments seem to encompass an immorality that, despite the general corruption of the era, stand out as exceptionally immoral.

Considering the topic of incest though, one must remember that a verdict can never be gained due to the intimate nature of such a theme, thus a lack of real evidence supporting it. Reviewing these matters it was interesting to change ones opinion upon reliability as a whole, as often what one would consider an unreliable source held a real significance and complimented arguments from other very reliable sources.

Two arguments which pleasantly surprised me while researching and then formulating them, were how Alexander VI dealt with the Jews and obtained his Papacy, both suggested a certain morality in Alexander VI which is often not the case. With regards to bribery one expected a rather negative conclusion to be drawn from such however, many of the sources suggested against ideas the Alexander bought his Papacy and showed how The Borgia name, similar to that of Richard III of York, had been tarnished by opponents who came into power afterwards.

Overall, one must sadly confess that in many ways it is true to say that The Borgia family were immoral, if we isolate Alexander's VI Papacy one would clearly come to such a conclusion despite the glimmers of morality that creep through. However, as a large proportion of my research suggests one must compare the latter Borgia Papacy with other renaissance Papacy's and the similarities are to extent that to call The Borgia dynasty immoral is to call the whole of the Italian renaissance period a conduit of immorality the leads to Rome.

This very general verdict was not my personal main aim in the project however, as I moreover wished to grasp the immorality on a personal level and I do feel I have very much achieved that, as even though my question, looking back was very broad, perhaps too much so, I believe I have analysed some arguments in a depth that really enlightens one about the personalities and personal motives behind the actions of the family. Through this analysis of character one began to discover how morality depends on the situation, for example in the treatment of Giovanni Sforza, this immorality is somewhat justified due to the youth of Lucrezia Borgia. One also discovered the immorality of the character of Juan Borgia who was sexually corrupt by committing adultery with many noblemen's wives – these judgments of character may have not been presented if I had chosen to analyse the immorality of events specifically rather than how the actions of the people involved were immoral.

In many ways the ending is bittersweet as one has established that through a plethora of the events analysed, the immorality amounts to such a level that to call The Borgia's moral would be immorality itself, however I am please with the dissertation as it presents each character in both positive and negative lights, showing their humanity as people in a era which was extremely ruthless.